Early Intervention Foundation
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 5 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
The Government recognise that early intervention is an important area. It makes sense, wherever possible, to prevent problems or address them early on. Taking this preventive approach will support children to achieve their full potential, reducing costs to the state of later educational failure and offering a wide range of associated benefits in participation, productivity, behaviour, health and social cohesion. Offering early help is central to the Government’s commitment to unlock social mobility and tackle child poverty.
On 27 February 2012, Official Report, column 11, in answer to a question from the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) I confirmed that the Government plans to procure the early intervention foundation.
The new foundation will have two key roles:
providing advice and support to local commissioners on evidence, social finance and payment by results relating to early intervention to assist their own procurement and evaluation; and
building the evidence base on what works in early intervention in the UK.
The Department will issue a public notification shortly in advance of an open and competitive procurement. Government have always been clear that an open and competitive tender process is the best way to ensure value for taxpayers’ money.
The Government have secured £3.5 million to fund the foundation for a two-year period. The contract will run for up to two years after which it will become self-financing, and Government funding will cease.
Oral Answers to Questions
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
1. What steps he is taking to ensure that Sure Start children’s centres focus on the most disadvantaged families.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
We published last year a new core purpose for children’s centres, which makes it clear that their core purpose is to improve outcomes for young children and their families, particularly for the most disadvantaged. Local authorities have statutory duties to provide sufficient children’s centres and to reduce inequalities. We are strengthening incentives to deliver the core purpose through revised statutory guidance, which we will publish shortly, through changes to Ofsted’s inspection framework and through payment by results. Children’s centres will also help families to access the new early education entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds.
Tony Baldry
Sure Start centres such as the Sunshine centre in Banbury do excellent work. What possibility is there of children’s centres’ budgets being ring-fenced within the early intervention grant to provide some security to the centres and to the communities for whom they work, or what possibility is there of children’s centres being given the same option as schools—to become the equivalent of an academy and to receive their funding directly from the Government?
Sarah Teather
We took a decision to ensure that the measure was carried out locally because of the importance in early intervention of joining services together. Children’s centres, health services and other aspects of local authority provision are best done locally, and it is right and proper that local authorities make the decision about organisation, strategic planning and commissioning.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister knows that even good local authorities such as mine in Kirklees, because they are not being given the resource by central Government, are being forced to modify the offer of children’s Sure Start centres. Is she not aware that even the most benign Government Member, particularly the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) who just asked that question, wants to take us back to the old Poor Law days, when there was one centre for poor people and other centres for others? That is not the way to provide good child care.
Sarah Teather
I think that everybody throughout the House agrees on the importance of early intervention. I accept that there may be differences of opinion on how we deliver it, but Government Members believe that the best way to do so is to devolve decisions to the local level. I do not think that the most disadvantaged families in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency would be best served by me attempting to run everything from my office in Whitehall.
Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)
20. I welcome the Minister’s announcements and comments on the issue, just as I welcome the extension of 15 hours of free education a week to the most disadvantaged two-year-olds, but will she tell us what more we must do to help parents access affordable child care? Under the previous Government the cost of child care rose by 50% and the number of childminders dropped by one third. We have to do better. What does she think?
Sarah Teather
I absolutely recognise the points that the hon. Lady makes. Child care is a very difficult pressure on many families’ budgets, and that is precisely why we have invested so much extra money in the area. Despite the tight financial climate because of the mess that the previous Government left us, we have nevertheless invested significant extra money in enabling two-year-olds to access free early education—20% of two-year-olds by 2013 and 40% by 2014.
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
The Department’s Sure Start and early intervention funding for the local authority area of the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) was cut by £30 per child this year. Islington, Knowsley and Tower Hamlets, however, three of the country’s most deprived boroughs, had cuts of £100 or more per child. Does the Minister believe that that is a good example of targeting resources for Sure Start and for early intervention at the most disadvantaged?
Sarah Teather
Decisions about the early intervention grant were made on the same formula as that used by the previous Government, so it is not really acceptable for the hon. Lady to claim that there are specific changes in particular constituencies, and suggesting that there is a political motivation is a little beneath her, actually.
Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
2. What assessment he has made of the effects of the Government’s reclassification of vocational qualifications.
Mr Graham Allen (Nottingham North) (Lab)
13. What discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on responsibilities for early intervention.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
The Government agree with the hon. Gentleman that early intervention is important to ensure that all children get the best start in life. Ministers have discussed early intervention—including his two reports—in a range of forums, including the Cabinet Social Justice Committee. The Government responded through “Families in the Foundation Years”, which was published last year. We intend to procure an early intervention foundation, as he recommended, through a fair and open competition.
Mr Allen
I thank the Minister for her consistent support for the creation of an early intervention foundation, which will take to scale evidence-based policies to help babies, children and young people. Will she update us on the tender process for an early intervention foundation and on where early intervention in general is in the psyche of the Government?
Sarah Teather
I am hugely grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s support, help and guidance on this issue. I absolutely agree that there is a moral as well as a financial case for investing in early intervention. It is a priority for the Government. He will be aware that I cannot say too much at the moment about the early intervention foundation, but we are working with other Departments to develop a specification for the foundation and are committed to ensuring that we get best value for money. My Department will issue a public notification shortly, in advance of an open and competitive procurement process.
Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)
A challenge for early intervention can be that the beneficiaries are a self-selecting group, so what is my hon. Friend doing, working with local authorities and other Departments, to ensure that those who will benefit most from early intervention get it? Does this not stress again the importance of those decisions being made locally?
Sarah Teather
I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman on this point, which is one reason we are about to begin trials of payment by results with local authorities and children’s centres—to ensure that they are focusing on the families who most need early intervention. It is one of a range of areas where we are trying to focus much more on outcomes, rather than just inputs.
Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)
The Department for Education has just published an interesting report showing a clear link between poor parenting and antisocial behaviour in children. What is the Minister’s view on the report and its recommendations for more family support and early intervention, and does she not agree that the short-sighted reductions to the early intervention grant, particularly in deprived areas, run counter to her own Department’s findings?
Sarah Teather
As the hon. Lady might know, last summer we announced that we would trial a new offer of parenting classes for all parents in three specific areas. That will be an interesting exercise, and we shall see what happens and whether we can encourage more people to come forward and take part in parenting support. Of course, children’s centres offer this kind of targeted, highly intensive work for families in many situations, and schools can use the pupil premium to pay for that, should they choose to do so
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
The House will know that the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions have done an enormous amount of work raising awareness of the importance of early intervention. We should thank them for that. Does the Minister agree that all Ministers and Government Members should totally support the Government’s welfare reforms?
Sarah Teather
It is always nice to have friendly fire from one’s own side, isn’t it? I can absolutely assure the hon. Gentleman that I was delighted to see the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions introduce transitional arrangements to support children and families in difficult situations.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
14. When he plans to publish a report of his review of sex and relationship education.
Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)
18. How many additional children will become eligible for the pupil premium in (a) St Austell and Newquay constituency and (b) Cornwall in the next financial year.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
Our latest estimate, based on the numbers in the January 2011 census, is that 2,970 children will be eligible for the main deprivation and service premium in the St Austell and Newquay constituency, and that 16,050 will be eligible in Cornwall. We will not know how many pupils will be eligible for the pupil premium next year until the number of eligible pupils from the January 2012 school census is confirmed in June.
Stephen Gilbert
Representatives of the Newquay association of primary heads, to whom I spoke on Friday, tell me that the pupil premium is making a real difference on the front line, but they are finding it difficult to access the additional support for children in care. How could that process be made swifter?
Sarah Teather
It is extremely clear that the local authority must pass down to the school the money for every child eligible for the pupil premium, regardless of whether that child is at a mainstream school or an academy. I am happy to investigate specific cases where there are difficulties, and I invite my hon. Friend to write to me with any details.
Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)
19. What support his Department offers to schools that wish to seek academy status.
Mr Tom Clarke (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (Lab)
In respect of the report of my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) on early intervention, do the Government accept that progress in education and the putting into place of their plan in response could be undermined if there are not sufficient assessments in the health service? Can we look forward to greater integration?
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
Making sure that services join together properly is absolutely key to getting early intervention right. That is precisely why we are rolling out 4,200 extra health visitors and making sure that they work very closely with Sure Start children’s centres. That is really critical. Similarly, the work we are doing on reforming the early years foundation stage, making sure there is more information available to parents, and the check at two and a half-years will really help with all the points the right hon. Gentleman has mentioned.
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
I welcome the reforms to reduce the amount of paperwork that teachers have to complete, but may I ask the Secretary of State to focus particularly on newly qualified teachers? The amount of paperwork they have to complete in that first year is putting good entrants off joining this important profession.
Early Intervention
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 6 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
I congratulate the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom) on giving an absolutely fascinating speech. I always respect what she says, and I am always grateful for her contributions on these issues. It is good to hear someone who has so much interest, expertise and passion speak on this subject. I share her passion for this subject, which is incredibly important.
Early intervention is a hugely important issue, and the term refers to many of the things that she described. However, I should say that I am the Minister with responsibility for early years, so I have a particular bias towards ensuring that early intervention really focuses on early years issues. The point about attachment is gathering pace in debate, as well as in the knowledge among professionals on the ground. The work that Oxpip has done, along with the hon. Lady’s work in continuously raising this issue, is important in ensuring that professionals understand the importance of attachment and that the Government consider it when we develop our early years policies.
I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady’s points about the importance of warm parenting and bonding. Those issues go to the heart of many of the things that we have been trying to do over the last 18 months. She will be aware that I and the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Guildford (Anne Milton), who has responsibility for public health, jointly published a document in the summer called “Families in the Foundation Years”, which covers many of the things that she picked up. There is a lot more work to do in this area—some of it is just beginning—but some of the themes that the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire picked up are being addressed by what is very much work in progress, across both the Department for Education and the Department of Health. In a sense, the things that she has talked about go right to the heart of the intersection between those two Departments. Indeed, it was a toss-up as to whether it would be me or my colleague the Minister with responsibility for public health responding this evening. We both take such issues incredibly seriously, which is why we are collaborating on much of the work on the nought-to-five age group.
The hon. Member for South Northamptonshire outlined the impact that insecure attachment can have on neurodevelopment and, in particular, the ways in which it affects levels of cortisol and the long-lasting impact that this can have on brain development. That is worth emphasising. Not all the research is concrete enough for us to be able to tell in retrospect whether somebody’s difficulties are a result of attachment issues, but there is good evidence that stress in early years results in attachment issues later. It is not always possible to bring that back retrospectively, when somebody’s behaviour is difficult, but there is certainly good correlative evidence that the lack of a warm bond from the beginning can result in serious behavioural problems later.
The issues that the hon. Lady has raised go to the heart of a number of matters that are a priority for the Government in the areas of family policy, health policy and child development. We have many of the systems in place that will begin to pick up on those issues. This is about universal and targeted services. She made the powerful point that issues of attachment are no respecter of class or income, which is precisely why we need children’s centres that are universal, but that can focus on those who are in the most need. They must have a universal front door through which anyone can walk, and they must not stigmatise those people who walk in and ask for the services. They must then focus their resources on the most difficult and challenging problems, including those that the hon. Lady mentioned. That is exactly what we have been trying to achieve.
Regarding the statement that we published in the summer, a number of things will be key if we are going to get this right. First, it is about identifying need early and putting in place the support to help the families that need it. Frankly, the first problem that we need to get over is that of data sharing. As I have said, this problem goes to the heart of issues covered by the Department for Education and the Department of Health, and data sharing is one of the big nubs that the previous Government tried to get to grips with. My colleague the Under-Secretary of State for Health and I are determined to pick up on this issue, because until the information about which families are most in need can be passed between the different professionals, it will be difficult to put in place the help that we know is available.
Over the past six months, I have seen some really good examples of where the services are working really well, and it is worth taking a minute to talk about them. The most exciting of the examples was in Manchester. I visited the Clayton Sure Start children’s centre just after the riots to find out about the work that it had been doing in this area. As part of a drive to improve the integration of services with GPs in the area with the most deprived wards, the GPs themselves had arranged for junior doctors who were training to become GPs to spend time at children’s centres to see the services that were being delivered. Among the messages that they were trying to get across was that, when a woman presents with post-natal depression, it is not just the woman whom they need to treat. They need to look beyond the patient and to understand that a newborn child is also involved and that, unless they get the services right, there could be a risk of attachment disorder later. That is not to say that every woman who presents with post-natal depression will have a child who ends up with attachment disorder, but GPs need to be aware of these issues.
The hon. Lady made a point about training for professionals. Health visitors are trained to understand these things, as are early years workers, although I think that there is much that we can do to improve on that. I will come back to that in a moment. Many GPs have very little knowledge of child development and attachment issues. That was a really exciting project on social prescribing, and I will be fascinated to see the results. I hope that many other areas will follow Manchester’s example, and learn just what can be done.
Similarly, some really good work has been done in Hull, involving an agreement to share information between local health services and children’s centres. The project has been led by one inspirational woman who is absolutely determined to ensure that the information was shared. The result of the agreement was that health visitors and family outreach workers were not duplicating each other’s work. They were sharing information and getting to the families in need quickly. They were also able to put in place the kind of support that the children’s centres offer, to help parents to understand the need to speak to their children in a particular way, and to understand about the warm parenting styles and firm parenting styles that are important right from the beginning.
The hon. Lady will be aware that the Government have committed to significantly increasing the number of health visitors. We plan to increase the health visitor work force by 4,200 by 2015 to ensure that the healthy child programme is fully and consistently implemented. At the moment, because of the patchy availability of health visitors, not everyone gets the support that they need. Ensuring that that service is well linked to the work that we are doing with children’s centres is at the heart of what we are trying to do.
Similarly, the Government have doubled the amount of funding available for the family nurse partnership—a programme that works intensively with particularly vulnerable young mothers and young parents to make sure that they get support right from conception, as the hon. Lady said, so that we do not pick up problems several months down the line when some of the problems have already begun to cement. It is an important programme, which we know makes an enormous difference to families at what is often a particularly difficult time. The nurses are very experienced and receive additional training in motivational interviewing, neurological development, attachment, mental health and strength-based working in a therapeutic relationship. Those are important skills, which help to ensure that the nurses are able to support mothers at that time.
Andrea Leadsom
I agree that the family nurse partnership is excellent, but does the Minister agree with me that it is entirely possible to come up with other strategies that would be less expensive and less prescriptive, including different therapies that might be more appropriate for certain types of parents rather than a prescribed particular programme that costs the taxpayer a lot of money to implement?
Sarah Teather
As the hon. Lady says, the family nurse partnership is one of our more expensive programmes. It is focused on very young mothers, and the doubling of the programme has been aimed primarily at expanding the help available to young, mostly teenage mothers who we are know are vulnerable. That is not to say, however, that other forms of help cannot also be extremely effective. The hon. Lady speaks with great passion about the work of the charity with which she is involved. Children’s centres have other models for helping to support women, particularly in areas where data sharing is working well and someone might be brought into a children’s centre before they give birth. It does not necessarily mean that the support they get is through the FNP system. There may be other ways of supporting those women. It is important for children’s centres to build on the best evidence available, but they must also be left free to innovate and develop their own work—based on what is known works.
Let me provide an example—outreach work. We are trying to improve the quality of the work done on outreach and family support. At the moment, there is a great variety of types of work on outreach. We have been working with the National College for School Leadership to develop some leaders in this area so we can draw together the evidence of best practice and disseminate it to encourage all areas to adopt the elements that we know work. That is not to say that every programme has to be badged or that everybody has to call their family support worker—sometimes called something slightly different. We know that certain key components of this work make a difference, so the key components of best practice will make a difference to families in difficulty.
I have only a few minutes left, so I would like to pick up some other points raised in the debate. The hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) raised a point about relationship support. I think that is critical for both the reasons the hon. Gentleman suggested, but also because when parents are in conflict, it is incredibly damaging for children as they grow up. That is the main reason why the Government are providing support for relationships—formal face-to-face relationship support, but we have also provided money for telephone counselling. This is an important feature of parenting programmes that work well. If we are to support parenting, we know that it is key to support the parents’ relationship and get them to talk to one another. They must have some support to ensure that the relationship is solid; parents should have the skills to negotiate with one another, not just with the child. Working with only one parent in such circumstances tends to be less effective. It may not have no good results, but the results will be much better if a component of relationship support is included.
Last September the Government announced a trial of a new offer of universal parenting support, which will take place in three areas for parents with a child under five. That was a response to evidence that parents’ relationships with their children was critical to the home learning environment—the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire mentioned children aged between nought and two, but in fact the relationship is critical throughout, and is one of the most important factors that determine how well a child does—but also a response to what parents tell us, which is that they want more support in this regard.
We will begin the trial, and we will see what happens. We will see whether parents take up the offer, whether it is popular, and whether it has an impact on parenting style. It is one of the things that we will need to evaluate at a later stage. We will want to know whether it deals with some of the points that have been raised this evening about harsh parenting styles that have an impact on children’s development and on discipline, but we also want to test the theory that if we provide this—
Oral Answers to Questions
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 7 months ago)
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Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con)
7. What recent progress his Department has made in implementing the proposals in the special needs Green Paper; and if he will make a statement.
Sarah Teather
When all that has settled down, we have established a number of local pathfinders to test the best ways of implementing the key reforms, and are providing support to local authorities in developing local provision for children and young people with special educational needs.
We will publish a response to the consultation on the Green Paper shortly. This will set out the progress we have made and the next steps in taking forward our reforms.
Charlotte Leslie
Given that two thirds of the August rioters have special educational needs—a rate well above the national average—and that a disproportionate number have been subject to school exclusions, what steps has the Minister taken to ensure that if a child is subject to permanent or repeated exclusion, they are assessed for special educational needs, so that if such needs exist they are catered for and met, and we can ensure that children such as those involved in the rioting can do basic things such as reading?
Sarah Teather
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I know that she feels strongly about this issue, which she discussed with me when we were consulting on the Green Paper. The whole purpose of what we are trying to do with the Green Paper is to focus better on early intervention. She will be aware that, in particular, we are ensuring that the forthcoming guidance on behaviour and exclusions makes it clear that a multi-agency assessment should be carried out if a pupil displays behaviour that does not respond to normal classroom management techniques. We have asked Charlie Taylor to do work specifically on alternative provision and attendance, and all those issues are relevant to the matters raised by the hon. Lady.
Peter Aldous
While the Warren and Ashley schools in Lowestoft provide first-class education for pupils with special educational needs, research by Ambitious about Autism shows that 85% of adults with autism are not in full-time employment. Will the Minister set out what she is doing to improve the transition from education to work for special needs pupils?
Sarah Teather
Again, trying to make sure that we have better transition is something on which the Green Paper and our response will specifically focus. That is why are changing the statementing process. A new education, health and care plan running from nought to 25 ought to enable us to think about outcomes and plan right from the beginning—not just as an afterthought when young people reach 16. We should focus much more on outcomes right from the beginning. In addition, there are a number of projects that the pathfinders are doing for us that look at transition. The Green Paper also highlights our proposals for supported internships, which might make a real difference here.
Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)
Partnerships for Schools says that Kirkleathamhall special school in my constituency has problems with access, temperature, lighting and ventilation; most of the teaching spaces are too small, and the full curriculum cannot be provided to secondary- age pupils. Will the Minister meet me to discuss this unacceptable situation?
Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) (LD)
In her answer to the original question, my hon. Friend referred to pathfinders. How will the information that she obtains from them be shared publicly, and how will it inform her work towards legislation in that area?
Sarah Teather
We are trying to go through a process of active learning so that the lessons from the pathfinders do not go into a black box and are not looked at again, but are shared with other local authorities. Local authority groups have come together, so it is not necessarily the case that individual local authorities are working in isolation, but are working with parents’ groups and charities on the ground. We are keen to learn the lessons that they are looking at, and we will make sure that that informs our legislation in future.
Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
6. What steps his Department plans to take to improve outcomes for children in care.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
10. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in central Government funding on the provision of out-of-school child care.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient child care locally to meet the needs of working parents, particularly families with disabled children. We want local authorities to keep parents informed about how they are meeting this duty. We are consulting on whether an annual report would enable parents to hold their local authority to account for the availability of suitable child care.
Sarah Teather
There are duties on local authorities to ensure that sufficient child care is available. I remind the hon. Gentleman that substantially more money— £760 million—is going into child care, particularly in early years for disadvantaged two-year-olds. That is new money that goes to disadvantaged areas in particular, where we know that there has historically been some difficultly in relation to early years settings.
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
Hard-working parents are being hit by a triple whammy with regard to child care costs: they are getting less support to pay for it because of the cuts to tax credits; costs are creeping up; and places are disappearing because of cuts to local government and the removal of ring-fenced funding. What assessment have Ministers made of the impact of their choices on parental employment, especially among women, as well as on child poverty?
Sarah Teather
As I just said, substantial new money is going into early years. It is one of the few areas across Government where in fact—[Interruption.] It is two-year olds, but that extra money will of course benefit any of those settings that are working with two-year olds, and most of them will be working with two-year olds as well as older children. It is new money, particularly for disadvantaged areas that might not otherwise have taken two-year olds. I wish that the Labour party, instead of just carping, might sometimes congratulate the Government on putting extra money into disadvantaged areas.
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)
Last Friday I had a meeting with a number of school-based family support workers in my constituency, who are seriously worried about the future of the vital service that they provide. What will the Government do to ensure that such services are not done away with by public spending cuts in constituencies such as mine, where there is a significant amount of disadvantage?
Sarah Teather
It makes sense for local authorities to invest in those areas. That is precisely why we called the new grant the early intervention grant, and precisely why we are now working with children’s centres, for example, to ensure that they are paid by results, focusing on outcomes and on providing the services that the hon. Gentleman mentions, which we know make a real difference.
John Howell (Henley) (Con)
11. What steps he plans to improve the quality of teaching in schools.
Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)
13. How many disadvantaged two-year-olds will be eligible for free nursery care in (a) York Outer constituency, (b) north Yorkshire and (c) England in 2012.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
We plan to introduce a legal entitlement to free early education for about 130,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds in September 2013, and we will extend this to 260,000 children—about 40% of two-year-olds—from September 2014. From 2013, about 700 two-year-olds in north Yorkshire and 300 in the city of York are likely to be eligible. Funding is available to local authorities in 2012 to enable them to build towards that.
Julian Sturdy
I thank the Minister for her response, but what are the Government doing to ensure that local authorities put in place sufficient funding and, importantly, capacity for the expansion in the eligibility of two-year-olds for free places by 2013?
Sarah Teather
I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s point that building capacity is key in this area, and we announced the figures for the number of two-year-olds who will be eligible in each local authority partly to help local authorities to begin to plan for that. We have put extra money into the early intervention grant to ensure that local authorities are able to build capacity, and we are working with 18 local authorities to conduct trials on how they might increase capacity, looking at examples of best practice so that we can share it with other areas.
Mr Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab)
The whole House welcomes the Government initiative on that front, but what moves is the Minister making to ensure that the poorest children get the very best nursery education, and not just child minding?
Sarah Teather
I agree with the premise of the hon. Gentleman’s question. Many child minders are of a high quality, so I would hesitate to sweep all child minders together. Unfortunately, there are issues of quality across the piece that we need to work on. We are consulting on a new basket of measures to ensure that, working with local authorities, we can raise quality. We are aware that there is a particular issue with disadvantaged areas, which often do not have as much choice or as good provision. It is a priority for us to ensure that the two-year-olds who really need this money benefit from it.
Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)
15. What progress his Department has made on work to reduce the administrative burden on teachers.
Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)
The Secretary of State will be aware of the extensive process that parents and schools go through when undertaking testing for special educational needs for children. What advice does he have for parents in my constituency when schools refuse to test their children for special educational needs?
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
Parents’ views about their child should be central. One thing that we are looking at in the Green Paper is how we can make clearer what should normally be provided in schools and what local authorities should normally provide. It should therefore at least be simpler for parents and teachers to understand whether a child’s needs are greater than those normally provided in the school, and much clearer whether they need a statutory assessment.
Mrs Linda Riordan (Halifax) (Lab/Co-op)
T6. The Prime Minister said before the election that there would be no return to selection at 11, so why are the Government making it easier for grammar schools to expand by taking away the rights of local parents to object?
Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)
I had a very good morning on Friday when I went to two infant schools. Both say that a larger number of children are coming in with speech and communication problems. What measures will we take in response to Jean Gross’s communications strategy, and how will we make it a priority to support those children at a very early age to resolve such problems?
Sarah Teather
As the hon. Lady says, there is a very particular issue with communication problems and ensuring that we identify them early. That is part of the reason I am working closely with colleagues at the Department of Health to implement significant numbers of new health visitors and to ensure that we commission services better. The education health and care plan, which will integrate services, will, I hope, make a real difference to children in that position.
Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)
The Secretary of State will be aware of my ongoing correspondence with him about Woodlands school in my constituency, which is held up not by pit props but by equally unsightly and unacceptable scaffolding. It seems that the school will be denied any access to the priority school building programme by an anomalous set of circumstances. It does not need extra places, yet the state of the buildings means that it obviously needs priority status and access to funds, but it has been denied that as more than 30% of the buildings are listed. What can the school do? We are due an answer. May we have it soon?
Early Years Foundation Stage
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 8 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
I am today publishing the Government response to the consultation on the early years foundation stage (EYFS).
The consultation has shown broad support for the Government’s proposals for a reformed EYFS, implementing the recommendations of Dame Clare Tickell’s independent review. The reforms will reduce paperwork and bureaucracy for professionals; focus attention on the areas most essential for children’s healthy development; support early intervention with children who face difficulties; and secure a stronger partnership with parents.
The Government response confirms our plans, including simplified assessment at age five and a new progress check for children aged 24 to 36 months, focused on the most important areas of children’s development. We also set out how we propose to refine the early learning goals (in particular literacy and maths), and minor changes to the guidance on assessment at age five to ensure it is relevant to all children including those with special educational needs and disabilities.
I am launching an additional one-month consultation on the EYFS early learning goals and educational programmes, and the relevant statutory instrument. This further consultation is required by the Childcare Act 2006.
The new early years framework is an important element in our plans to ensure families in the foundation years are supported, to give children the best possible start in life, and ensure that all children have the knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for their future progress through school and life. The revised EYFS statutory framework (and the associated regulations) will be published in spring, to enable schools and other providers to prepare for implementation of the new EYFS from September 2012.
I have placed a copy of the Government response in the Libraries of both Houses.
Dyslexia
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 8 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr Weir. It is a Wednesday afternoon; I am here in a debate that you are chairing; and I am very pleased to see you.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) on securing the debate. It was good to see other Members come into the Chamber, although a bit late, because I was anxious that we would not have so many Members contributing. This issue interests Members right across the House, and I am aware of the hon. Gentleman’s involvement in the all-party group, whose input and advice I have very much welcomed.
I listened with interest to the rather technical debate between the hon. Members for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) and for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer). None us is a qualified educational psychologist, and it has certainly been an awfully long time since I did any neurophysiology. The Government take their advice from the best and latest scientific advice available. The Rose report tried to get away from the debate about the exact nature and cause of the difficulties that people face—something that was often distracting for many students—and instead tried to focus on solving the individual child’s problems, whatever they might be, as they present in the classroom. With that in mind, I will not get involved in the detail of that debate, because it might be better if it took place somewhere else between expert educational psychologists. Instead, I will deal rather more with service provision.
Dyslexia affects a significant number of pupils. From the school census, we know that 78,000 pupils receive support for a specific learning difficulty, including dyslexia and dyspraxia. They receive that support through school action plus or a statement of SEN educational needs. About 11% of all pupils receive such support. Many others will be supported as part of a personalised approach to teaching in the classroom, as a number of hon. Members mentioned. That will perhaps involve additional help from teachers or teaching assistants.
Dyslexia primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word spelling and reading, and it can occur across the range of pupils’ intellectual abilities. We know from parents and pupils that they are often frustrated with the assumptions made about what they can achieve, and the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West, referred to the case of her son. Sometimes that can lead to incredible frustration and a stymieing of aspiration in individual students.
For far too long, there has been a real attainment gap between students with dyslexia and their peers. The proportion of pupils with a specific learning difficulty gaining the expected qualifications has more than doubled since 2006, but the gap remains far too large. In 2010, fewer than one in six such pupils, or just under 15%, achieved five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including English and maths, compared with more than half of pupils as whole. The Government are determined to see that change and to improve overall outcomes for pupils with SEN or a disability. Support for pupils with SEN is provided within a statutory framework that has, unfortunately, remained largely unchanged for three decades.
One of the first things that I did when I became a Minister was to begin a review of special educational needs. In March this year, I published our Green Paper, “Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability”, which sets out plans fundamentally to reform the special educational needs system. It was a response to a set of core problems that undermined the achievement of too many children and young people, and those problems have been mentioned by a number of hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt). The problems include parents having to battle through a confusing and adversarial system to get the support their child needs; SEN statements not joining provision up, with education, health and care often ending up being provided disparately, and families having to go between the three different providers to negotiate their own package of support; children falling between the gaps in services or having to undergo multiple assessments; and paperwork and bureaucracy adding to delays, rather than providing the support that is needed.
Kelvin Hopkins
The Minister is talking about delays. A number of members of my family have been schoolteachers, and getting statements has often been an enormous difficulty. Sometimes, it has taken up to a year before a child who clearly needed to be statemented actually was statemented. The suspicion is that local authorities are trying to delay things to save money. I hope the Minister will take that into account.
Sarah Teather
One thing that we suggested in the Green Paper was speeding up the process, but this is also a question of trying to make clear what the thresholds should be, and I will say a little more about that later.
The other thing that informed the Government’s work on the Green Paper was Ofsted’s report, which showed that too many children are being over-identified as having SEN. In other words, the wrong children are often labelled as having SEN, and we need to ensure that we put in place the right support for children at the right time.
At the heart of the Government’s vision for the reforms is a desire to support better life outcomes for young people, to increase parents’ confidence in the system and to transfer powers to the front line and local communities, as we are trying to do across all areas of policy. To achieve those changes, we are introducing a new approach to identifying SEN to challenge the culture of low expectations. There will be a new, single early-years setting and school-based category of SEN.
I heard the concerns of the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West, who was worried that it might lead to some young people not getting the support they need, but I should stress that, of course, school action at the moment brings with it no extra funds. School action plus money is provided to schools on the basis of other proxy indicators, rather than the number of children actually in the relevant category in previous years, so it should make no difference to the resources that are allocated. However, it will make it easier for schools to decide how to deal with the young people that they focus on. Many of them say that the existing categories are somewhat bureaucratic. Ofsted has made the point that some children are labelled as having special education needs when really they are just falling behind. That is a rather different debate from the one about specific learning difficulties.
Mrs Hodgson
We are looking for reassurance that when the reason for children falling behind is an underlying special educational need, rather than there being no specific reason, they will still be identified by some marker. They might not need the education, health and care plan, and all that it brings, but the marker would have been school action or school action plus. Will there still be some mechanism to identify those children?
I suppose the reason for giving the relevant marker to children who fall behind might be to try to find out whether there is an underlying reason.
Sarah Teather
When Ofsted reported, a rather heated debate took place between teaching unions and Ofsted, and it shed a lot of heat but not light. Many accusations were thrown from both sides about motives. I do not think that teachers label a child as having special educational needs to get round league tables or for similar reasons. It is human nature, when a problem is seen, to label it. Unfortunately, that labelling was often not followed by action. It is all very well to label a child, but it is purposeless to do so if no action follows. The child then carries a label with them, irrespective of whether it is helpful, and does not get the support needed to enable them to progress. We are trying to get away from the focus on labelling, and instead to adopt an approach in which those concerned look at the child in front of them, and ask what they need. Some of that approach, to be fair, is about good teaching practice, which will deal with many needs.
Kelvin Hopkins
The hon. Lady is right about dealing with individual children. Boys need more pressure and rigour in school, when they are young, than girls do. Girls tend to be more conscientious and are now succeeding in education. In every field and at every level they now beat boys. I agree that we need to consider teaching quality as well, so that youngsters do not fall behind because they are more interested in playing on the computer, or doing something not to do with their studies. Rigour in education is right for all youngsters. However, we also need to take account of those with specific difficulties.
Sarah Teather
All sorts of young people fall behind. The fact that so many young people born in the summer are in the school action category is particularly good evidence that we do not at the moment necessarily label the right children. Other children who may have specific needs go through school without being identified. That is not good enough, because such children do not get the support they need.
The Green Paper made some radical proposals to change the system. As several Members, including the hon. Member for Portsmouth North, said, we have just finished a consultation and will respond to it in the new year. The rest of what I say now on the matter will pick up on what we have already said, rather than announcing what we will do. Hon. Members will have to wait a few weeks, until we have finished crunching through the detail of the consultation. We had an enormous number of responses from parents, charities and teachers. That is very helpful detail and we need to work through it.
As I said during my introduction, many pupils with dyslexia receive most of their support in the classroom through high-quality, personalised teaching. We know from the independent review led by Sir Jim Rose that the early identification of problems and the right teaching support are critical to helping dyslexic pupils achieve. Alongside the special educational needs reforms we are also working with schools to support teachers to identify and respond to pupils with dyslexia. Difficulty with phonics and the ability to identify and manipulate the sound of words is central to the challenges that dyslexic pupils face. It is also a critical element for all children learning to read.
We are introducing a new phonics screening check for children in year 1, which should pick up children struggling with early literacy because of dyslexia. I think that the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West slightly misunderstood some things about the statement at the weekend by my colleague the schools Minister. When he highlighted the fact that inadequate numbers of young people were passing the screening test at the relevant stage, he was trying to make the point that phonics, as a system for teaching reading, had not properly embedded in teaching at the earliest stages of schooling. He was not labelling half of children as failing. He was recognising how much further we need to go to embed the practice clearly in the way teachers teach the youngest children to read, from the beginning. We know that phonics is particularly helpful for identifying difficulties in children who have dyslexia.
Graham Stringer
The Minister has been speaking an enormous amount of sense, recognising that teaching children to read is one of the most important things that the state does. I think she has recognised that Jim Rose recommended in his report that systematic phonics should be at the heart of good Government strategy for teaching children to read. When the Select Committee on Science and Technology considered the scientific basis for the Government’s policy, we found from the written and oral evidence that there was still, in the wave 3 reading recovery programme, a continuing practice of word memorisation and the use of whole language theory. That does exactly the opposite of what the Minister has been saying about recognising phonics and the transferability of the sound and the letter. Has she had a look at what is happening in wave 3 reading recovery?
Sarah Teather
I certainly looked at the reading recovery programme, Every Child a Reader, most of which is based around phonics. There are some other, more flexible, practices. We must recognise that although the evidence suggests that systematic phonics is absolutely the most effective way to teach children to read, some children for various reasons will not respond to that system, and it is important to have some flexibility at the margins to pick up the children who have fallen through the net. However, almost all the programme is still based around systematic phonics.
Kelvin Hopkins
I agree with the Minister and my hon. Friend about phonics for those who do not have the disabilities in question. Two generations of teachers have almost been forbidden phonics in schools. Even in the past year I have come across a teacher working in London who was forbidden to make any reference to phonics in school. We still have a serious problem.
Sarah Teather
To support the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics we are making £3,000 of match funding available to all schools with key stage 1 pupils, for phonics materials and training. I hope that that sort of systematic, structured approach to teaching phonics will help, because we know that it supports pupils’ approach to learning to read, particularly for those who are dyslexic.
I want to make some wider comments about support for teachers and work force development, which goes to the heart of our programme on SEN. It begins with the new standards for qualified teacher status, which include a continued focus on meeting the needs of all children, including those with special educational needs or who are disabled. Similarly, as part of the national scholarship programme for teachers, we have a clear focus on supporting teachers to improve and extend their knowledge and expertise when working with pupils with special educational needs and disability, including specific impairments.
It is anticipated that around 50% of those scholarships will be available to support SEND. We have provided funding for up to 9,000 special educational needs co-ordinators to complete the mandatory higher level SENCO award by the end of 2011-12. The Teaching Schools network, which will allow schools to support each other and drive up the quality of teaching, will help to improve the quality of support for pupils with special educational needs or a disability. Of the first 121 designated schools, 113 have been judged as outstanding for the quality of learning and progress of pupils with special educational needs. The new Teaching Schools initiative has real potential to radically improve the quality of peer-to-peer mentoring and support for teachers in relation to SEN.
Penny Mordaunt
On support, one of the other problems that I encountered in Portsmouth was that, where a child had not got a school place and the parents were trying to do their best to teach them at home, they received no support, because if they admitted to the local authority that they were teaching the child at home, they were instantly crossed off the waiting list for a school place. I would be interested to know whether the Minister has any views about how such training and support could be extended to provide parents whose children are at home waiting for a school place with the support and help that they need to ensure that they are not missing out.
Sarah Teather
I cannot comment on a specific case, but perhaps if the hon. Lady drops me a note about the matter, I will have a look at it. In the Green Paper, we indicated that local authorities need to provide support to families who are home schooling a child. They are often doing so because they have been unable to get the support that they need in mainstream settings or perhaps because their local special school did not provide them with the support that they wanted.
I want to say something about Achievement for All because it goes to the heart of some of the issues that we have been discussing about the need for someone to look at the child in front of them and have high aspirations, rather than necessarily think about the labels. The Achievement for All programme has been running in around 450 schools for the past two years, and the evaluation has demonstrated some dramatic results. Under the programme, children made greater progress in English and mathematics than other children with SEND across the country, and they also often exceeded the progress of children without SEND, so there has been a really dramatic improvement.
The independent evaluation, which was carried out by the university of Manchester, demonstrated that pupil attendance significantly improved. That picks up some of the other points that we were discussing a moment ago about additional needs sometimes being confused with SEN. Often the issue is just about getting young people to attend school. For children taking part in the Achievement for All programme, there was an average increase in attendance of just over 10%. The evaluation also found significant improvements in behaviour, including less bullying, stronger relationships between schools and parents and a greater awareness and focus on SEND.
Some of the points that the hon. Member for Portsmouth North discussed in relation to her Bill—parental engagement and the need to communicate better with parents—go partly at the heart of this. One of the key facets of the Achievement for All programme is parental engagement and enabling teachers to feel confident about having a conversation with parents about the progress of their child. The Government are investing £14 million to roll out the programme across the country, so that more children can benefit. The programme is being delivered by a newly formed charity, Achievement for All 3As, chaired by Brian Lamb and supported by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Schools can now see for themselves the evidence that the programme works, and we want more schools to come forward and sign up.
The evaluation highlighted some important lessons in how to improve the outcomes for pupils with SEND. Perhaps most crucially, there needs to be strong leadership from the head teacher and senior leadership team, rather than simply relying on a SENCO to provide leadership within a school, although that is important. Achievement for All 3As is currently engaged with 41 local authorities and 598 schools. We hope and estimate that, overall, 1,000 schools will have signed up to the programme by April next year.
I want to turn to some of the specific concerns, particularly on the Joint Council for Qualifications guidance, expressed by hon. Members. I understand that there has been significant concern following recent coverage about apparent changes to the availability of reasonable adjustments for dyslexic pupils. It is, of course, absolutely vital for the fairness of an exam system that reasonable adjustments are made where needed. We have therefore been in touch with the JCQ about the changes, and it maintains that there has been no change to the circumstances in which a student is entitled to extra time for an exam. What has changed is the type of evidence that is acceptable to demonstrate that such extra time is needed.
The most recent edition of the relevant guidance confirms that a school or college must consider and maintain on record the evidence that the student has been assessed as having a below-average standardised score in an assessment of processing, reading or writing speed. I emphasise that the previous guidance similarly required evidence of low standardised scores using assessments of processing speed, reading or writing. I am afraid that we are picking up differences in practice, not differences in the guidance. Such difficulties have always been the basis on which extra time can be awarded to dyslexic pupils, and difficulties in phonological awareness—understanding and decoding the sounds of words and verbal processing—were two of the characteristics of dyslexia identified by Sir Jim Rose.
I understand that Dyslexia Action has written directly to the JCQ to set out its concerns. It is right that the JCQ and Ofqual, as the independent body overseeing the examinations system, should respond to those and determine whether any further clarification of the arrangements is required. I understand that they will be meeting with dyslexia charities and experts in the new year to explore those differences further. Ofqual has assured me that pupils already granted extra time will remain entitled to it on the basis of their existing assessment. I hope that hon. Members will be reassured on that point.
Mrs Hodgson
On a point of clarity about the difference between the old and the new criteria, is it the case that, under the old criteria, students had to have a low score and that now it has to be below average? I am not sure whether I heard the Minister correctly.
Sarah Teather
There is no change in the criteria; there is a change in the evidence that has to be provided. What we are picking up on is how schools interpreted the previous guidance, not necessarily the actual guidance that was being provided. That raises some issues about how schools were interpreting the guidance and the freedom that they thought that it gave them. In fact, the guidance is the same, but slightly more rigorous evidence is being asked for to demonstrate that schools have met the guidance, and they are being asked to hold that on record. The best thing is for Ofqual and the JCQ to meet dyslexia charities in the new year, as they will do, along with other experts in the area. They should make those points to the JCQ and Ofqual at that stage.
The hon. Lady spoke briefly about the changes to spelling, punctuation and grammar in some GCSEs that were announced this afternoon. Hon. Members may be aware that that was likely to happen and that we would be restoring marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar in some key subjects that have extended pieces of writing. During Ofqual’s consultation on the proposals, it heard concerns from dyslexia organisations about the potential impact on pupils with special educational needs, particularly dyslexia. I understand that it will be considering that as it decides how to roll out and implement the proposal.
However, during the consultation, there was also widespread support for ensuring accuracy within the qualifications. People expect those with high grades in GCSEs to be able to write accurately. The need to include an assessment of accuracy in spelling, punctuation and grammar is key to restoring confidence in GCSEs as rigorous and valued qualifications. Ofqual has set the level at 5% of total marks for the GCSE, so that the assessment of subject knowledge is not affected disproportionately. There will be the possibility of partial marks. It is not an all-or-nothing assessment and students will be able to achieve some or all of the marks depending on the extent of accuracy and how well they have conveyed meaning. In practice, there will be no blanket effect on the grades achieved by individuals, and the credibility of the exam and the grades achieved will be increased for all. Such changes, alongside some of the reforms to special educational needs provision, will give a real incentive to teach all pupils those core skills and prevent pupils with special educational needs from being sidelined or aspirations being lowered.
Kelvin Hopkins
I recently chaired a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group for social science and policy, at which we considered and had academic presentations on social mobility. A major factor in poor social mobility is the gulf in the use of language and education. Is the Minister saying that for the great mass of pupils, we will ensure that the standard at which they are able to use the language formally will be targeted and improved, or just that we will have a race to the top where the middle class will again have the advantage?
Sarah Teather
I agreed with the hon. Gentleman’s first point. The second point seemed to bear no resemblance to the first. To raise aspirations for all is a good thing. To say that it is possible to achieve, regardless of background, is really important. To believe in social mobility and have it at the heart of educational policy, we have to have high aspirations for every child.
Kelvin Hopkins
To clarify, if one just gives marks for punctuation, grammar and syntax, certain people from certain backgrounds will have an even greater advantage over people from other backgrounds. The gulf in our society will widen unless extra effort is put in to ensure that everyone has a rigorous education in these methods.
Sarah Teather
I really do not accept that point at all. It is simply not good enough to say that, because someone is from a certain background, they will not be able to learn how to spell or use language correctly. That is exactly at the heart of what we are trying to break. I have to say that, as an employer, I meet lots of graduates who do not have dyslexia who have not learnt how to use accurate punctuation and spelling. Unfortunately, it is a continuous frustration, and I sometimes wonder whether I am the best-paid proofreader in the country, given the amount of time I spend correcting grammar and punctuation in the documents that leave the Department—I probably should not say that in Hansard.
Kelvin Hopkins
I agree entirely. The Minister’s experience and mine are the same, but those who had the rigorous experience that I had at school have an advantage over those who did not, even though they might have been equal in ability in every other way. I appreciate that we are off the subject of dyslexia now. We are running out of time; but it is important to say that, if we are to have a society that is less divided, we must ensure that we provide education for those who do not have natural advantages.
Sarah Teather
If we are to have a society that is less divided, we must ensure that all children, regardless of their background, are given the same benefits of that sound education. Putting those marks, even 5%, back into qualifications will create an incentive to ensure that all children have that grounding. That is really important.
Mrs Hodgson
To return to the subject of dyslexia and the dispensation that will be given for children with dyslexia, the additional 5% can make the difference between an A and an A* for a very bright, dyslexic pupil.
Sarah Teather
Ofqual will consider and take into account the concerns of dyslexic charities when it decides on implementation. The issue of reasonable adjustments continues to remain.
I should like to conclude now. I thought that we would not have many speakers. In fact, I seem to have prattled on for so long—[Interruption.] Are there 17 minutes left? I thought that we finished at 3.45 pm. I have been racing to the end and thought that I only had two minutes. In fact, we have loads of time. I might still conclude anyway, or I will not have any voice left.
I am very grateful to hon. Members for their contributions. I hope that I have been able to allay some concerns. Dyslexia charities will no doubt make the points that they made to the hon. Members who came to this debate to Ofqual and JCQ in the new year, but I want to leave hon. Members with the assurance that we are absolutely committed to reforming the support for children with special educational needs and disability. We will say much more in the new year, in response to the consultation. I am grateful to all hon. Members for their constructive input on this matter.
Pupil Premium 2012-13
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 8 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
I am today confirming the funding available for schools in England in 2012-13, through the pupil premium and what this means in terms of funding per pupil. The pupil premium targets additional money at pupils from the most deprived background to help them achieve their full potential.
In 2012-13 the amount available for the pupil premium will double from £625 million in 2011-12 to £1.25 billion. It will further rise to £2.5 billion by 2014-15.
The Government have decided that eligibility for the pupil premium in 2012-13 will be extended to pupils who have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last six years. Earlier this year we consulted on options for extending the coverage of the pupil premium. As a group, children who have been eligible for FSM at any point in time have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible for FSM. Up to £50 million of the £1.25 billion will be used to support a summer school programme to help the most disadvantaged pupils make the transition from primary to secondary school. This approach received the highest support with 44% of those responding backing its introduction.
Increasing overall funding for the premium next year to £1.25 billion will enable the coverage of the premium to be extended to a further 500,000 million pupils, while at the same time increasing the level of the premium from £488 to £600 per pupil. This will ensure that a higher proportion of underachieving children are able to benefit from the extra funding provided through the premium.
Schools will have the freedom to spend the premium, which is additional to the underlying schools budget, in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils.
We urge schools and local authorities to encourage parents to register their child as eligible for free school meals so that each school receives their maximum pupil premium entitlement.
To ensure transparency and accountability, schools will be required from September 2012 to publish online information about how they have used their pupil premium allocations. New measures will be included in the performance tables that will capture the attainment of pupils covered by the pupil premium.
We will continue to provide the pupil premium for children in care who have been looked after for more than six months, recognising that they need additional support to help them raise their educational achievement.
We will also continue to provide a premium for children of parents in the armed services, who face particular challenges. The level of this service child premium will be £250 in 2012-13, up from £200 in 2011-12.
Annex A
Accompanying documents
These products can be found online at:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/financialmanagement/schoolsrevenuefunding
Example pupil premium allocations using the Ever 6 indicator applied to the January 2011 school census.
Oral Answers to Questions
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 9 months ago)
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Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
2. How much he plans to allocate in funding for the pupil premium to (a) Harlow constituency and (b) England in 2011-12.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
We are planning to allocate £625 million to schools and local authorities in England in 2011-12. The allocation for the Harlow constituency is £1,012,112.
Robert Halfon
I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent news about how the pupil premium is helping the most vulnerable children in my constituency. Will she look at incentivising schools like Burnt Mill in Harlow that are using the pupil premium to focus on improving maths and English?
Sarah Teather
I am delighted to hear about that school using the pupil premium in that way. It is good to hear from head teachers examples of how they are spending the money and the impact it is making on the ground. I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman would invite the head teacher to write to me to tell me more about the detail of the work that that school is doing and its impact on pupils, as we are looking to try to publicise examples of good practice and it would be helpful to hear what is happening in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency?
Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)
Although the pupil premium has some merits in theory, what we shall see in reality over the next few years is the biggest cut in education funding since the 1950s. Is this not simply a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Sarah Teather
I am glad to hear some grudging acceptance from the Opposition of the benefits of the pupil premium, which focuses money on the most disadvantaged students and gives schools freedom to spend it as they choose. I have just heard an example from my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) of where that is making a substantial difference. I remind the hon. Gentleman that there is a flat cash settlement per pupil, and that an additional £2.5 billion has been made available for the pupil premium.
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
Schools in my constituency are to receive a welcome £1.5 million from the pupil premium. At a meeting with representatives of the local primary school last Friday, I learnt that some primary schools will be working together to spend that money in the best possible way for their pupils. Does the Minister agree that that is a smart way of trying to get the best out of the pupil premium?
Sarah Teather
Trying to encourage smaller schools in particular to work together on best practice, especially if they have similar catchment areas, is an excellent initiative. It is helpful to hear about what is happening on the ground.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
3. What assessment he has made of the findings of the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on Trends in Education and Schools Spending.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
4. What estimate he has made of the change in average expenditure on schools in real terms per student following the introduction of the pupil premium.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
Average funding per pupil for 2011-12 has been kept cash-flat at £5,082 per pupil, plus the pupil premium. The pupil premium totals £625 million this year, rising to £2.5 billion in 2014-15. It provides £488 for each free-school-meal child and looked-after child. In addition, the children of families in the armed services will attract £200.
Rushanara Ali
I thank the Minister for her answer. According to recent research, a London child living in one of the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods in 2010 had a 75% chance of finishing above the bottom quarter of the national results at age 16. Without the London weighting attached to the pupil premium, how will the Government ensure these high standards are maintained in constituencies such as mine?
Sarah Teather
I absolutely agree that the figures for attainment for children on free school meals and looked-after children are woefully inadequate at present. That is why we have introduced the pupil premium. I should also say that in the hon. Lady’s constituency per-pupil funding is higher than almost anywhere else in the country. A substantial amount of money is already going into her constituency, therefore, as well as a significant amount of money through the pupil premium, which will rise to £2.5 billion nationally by the end of the spending review period. I would therefore encourage her to ask her schools how they are spending that money, and I would be very pleased to hear the detail of some of the best practice being followed by them.
Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) (LD)
My hon. Friend rightly sets out the benefits of the pupil premium. Does she agree that one of them is that it targets disadvantaged pupils wherever they are in the country, unlike general funding formulas, which the Government are looking at and which under previous Administrations have, perhaps, neglected some children in some parts of the country?
Sarah Teather
Absolutely. I represent an inner-London constituency so I see very high levels of deprivation there, but there are also high levels of deprivation in rural areas, which is often unseen either because it is in pockets or because people might perceive that because an area is leafier it must also be wealthier. Many rural schools, including in my hon. Friend’s constituency, will benefit from the pupil premium and will be able to focus their efforts on raising the attainment of all their pupils.
Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
I have written to the Minister’s colleague the Secretary of State about a specific issue relating to transient populations clustered in particular areas, such as north-east Sheffield, where as many as 25% of primary school pupils and about 15% in one secondary school do not claim the usual benefits that entitle their school to receive the pupil premium. I therefore take the unusual step of asking the Minister to come to Sheffield and to my constituency, so as to examine this issue and then reformulate the pupil premium so that such schools can be supported and helped?
Sarah Teather
Obviously, I have not seen the right hon. Gentleman’s letter to the Secretary of State, but I would be happy for either me or a colleague to come to see the specific issues in his constituency. I recognise the challenges of having a transient population and ensuring that all those families are claiming their benefits and are registered for free school meals. The Department is beginning a series of work to encourage schools to make sure that all families are signed up to free school meals.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
I very much welcome the introduction of the pupil premium, but is the whole system not completely reliant on the schools correctly identifying and registering pupils who are eligible for free school meals? How successful does the Minister believe schools are in identifying these vulnerable pupils?
Sarah Teather
It varies according to area. We know that there is some tail-off at secondary school level, which is one of the reasons why our funding consultation touched on whether or not to introduce measures, including “ever” free school meals. That was about picking up children for the pupil premium who had previously been on free school meals, because there is some drop-off as they move from one area to the next. As I said, we are beginning some work to encourage parents to sign up. Not all parents want to sign up for the lunch, but they may well be keen to sign up if they know that their school will get extra money.
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)
The facts are that the Institute for Fiscal Studies report says that in this financial year nearly three quarters of primary schools and more than 90% of secondary schools will see a real-terms cut in their budgets, even after including this so-called “additional pupil premium”. Is the Minister embarrassed about the way she has been conned by her coalition partners or was she only too willing to sell our schools short?
Sarah Teather
Perhaps I can quote the IFS report back at the hon. Gentleman, because it says that the most deprived schools are likely to see real-terms increases in funding per pupil in 2011-2012. It is perhaps sometimes worth reading the detail of a report and not merely quoting back headlines.
Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
21. What estimate he has made of the likely size of the Sure Start children’s centre network by the end of the 2012-13 financial year.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
Local authorities have a duty under section 5A(1) of the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure that there are sufficient children’s centres to meet local need. Many local authorities are reviewing their provision, and they must consult before making any significant changes. The situation changes constantly and it is not possible to predict accurately the position at the end of the 2012-13 financial year. The early intervention grant provides enough funding to retain a network of Sure Start children’s centres.
Karl Turner
The Minister recently visited Little Stars children’s centre in my constituency and was impressed by the quality and commitment of staff to the service. Will she commend the Labour council leader for prioritising Sure Start, despite the savage cuts handed to it by the Government, and urgently reconsider the Government’s decision to remove ring-fencing?
Sarah Teather
I very much enjoyed my visit to Hull and was extremely impressed by much of the work being done on the ground, particularly the innovative and fascinating work that a number of centres have been doing to link children’s services with health. As I have said already, I commend local authorities that are prioritising children’s services on the ground. That is certainly the message that we have given out clearly to local authorities.
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
A recent newspaper article suggested that the Minister’s Department did not know what impact there has been on the services provided within children’s centres. I hope she will agree that services are more important than the centres themselves. What research will she carry out on that, and will she ensure that good practice is publicised?
Sarah Teather
The Department has commissioned an ongoing evaluation of children’s centres in England, so any changes that are made as a result of Government policy, particularly the move to payment by results and changes in other services offered by children’s centres, will certainly be picked up by the evaluation.
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
Last week the Department finally admitted that the Government’s damaging cuts to early years are resulting in services being withdrawn and children’s centres being decommissioned and having to close their doors to parents, but we all know that those figures are just the beginning. Councils are now looking ahead to the next financial year, with the reserves drained and the easy cuts having already been made. How many centres will have to close before this out-of-touch Government and out-of-touch Secretary of State admit their mistakes and save our Sure Starts?
Sarah Teather
Our survey suggests that there have been six closures and 124 mergers since last year, out of a total that started at 3,631, so there has been a 3% change in the number of Sure Start children’s centres, demonstrating that most local authorities are not only doing the best in what are, I recognise, very difficult circumstances, just as they are for the Government. Those authorities are prioritising services on the ground and that is certainly what we are encouraging them to do, as we ask them to publish the information on what they spend, under the new transparency requirements that the Government have introduced. Similarly, payments by results will focus them much more on outcomes.
Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)
22. What assessment he has made of the findings of the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on trends in education and schools spending.
Adoption
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 9 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I am not sure that I can exceed the florid language of the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson). I congratulate the hon. Member for Erewash (Jessica Lee) on securing the debate hard on the heels of national adoption week.
The more observant Members in the Chamber have realised that I am not the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), who is incredibly disappointed that he cannot be present at the debate today—so disappointed that we spoke twice on the phone yesterday. He apologised personally to the hon. Member for Erewash, but he was in Birmingham yesterday and Sheffield today, speaking at child protection conferences among many other things. I will not say that he would rather be here, because that would cause terrible offence to people in Sheffield, but he was desperate to be present.
The debate has been fantastic—knowledgeable, passionate and informed by personal stories of adoption, whether as barristers or as families, whether as a brother or as adoptive parents. Hard on the heels of national adoption week, it is helpful to be able to do some of the myth-busting of which the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich spoke. It is helpful to air some of the myths, then systematically knock some down. We want to be open to many more people as adoptive parents and to be robust in challenging some of the things that have grown up and which prevent people who have an enormous amount to give from coming forward.
The hon. Member for Erewash is a member of the Under-Secretary’s ministerial advisory group on adoption, so she is aware of his particular interest and passion. He is very determined to ensure that more children who have been overlooked are considered appropriately for adoption, in particular older and disabled children, and to speed up the adoption process as much as possible, so that they can be adopted at a younger age.
Over the past year, a great deal of activity has been going on. The Under-Secretary has been leading a wide programme of reform. The Government have issued revised guidance and national minimum standards, and an adoption and special guardianship data pack is available for local authorities to use to challenge the operation and performance of their adoption service. The Under-Secretary appointed Martin Narey as the ministerial adviser on adoption, and approved funding for Barnardo’s in partnership with the Coram Foundation, to engage with 24 local authorities and help them to improve adoption outcomes for children and the adoption services. The Government have approved funding for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, to raise awareness of and to promote adoption, and for a one-year pilot project with a number of local authorities to gain a better understanding of how the adoption register is used to find families for children in need of adoption, and how matching decisions are made, which picks up on a point made by the hon. Member for Erewash. Findings from the project will inform the work of the register in helping local authorities to increase their matching rates.
As a number of hon. Members stated, disappointingly, adoption figures have fallen this year. I recognise the point made by the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), as well as by the hon. Members for Crewe and Nantwich and for Erewash, that adoption is not the only process. Special guardianship and permanent residency orders might well be more appropriate for some children in some situations. However, today’s debate is specifically about adoption, so what I want to say from here on in is specifically about adoption.
As the Prime Minister made clear last week, for too long, many children have been let down by the whole system, which was a point well made by the hon. Member for Erewash in her opening remarks. One person at fault is not what leaves so many children who should be adopted not getting that opportunity. The system has many different barriers at the moment, such as local authorities or the family justice system. The Under-Secretary has a chart on his wall, on which he can see the particular blocks in the system that cause the delays—a visible image that he looks at every day, to remind himself of the barriers and of where the Government is pushing to make the whole system more efficient.
The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North mentioned performance tables, which we released last week. I absolutely recognise her point, that we need to get under the skin of what some of those data mean. In some cases, local authorities might appear to have a slower rate, but they may be extremely good at placing older children, for example. However, that is part of encouraging local authorities to look at their practice and perhaps that of their next-door authorities. The lack of such a process, in particular with children in care and adoption, is a continual frustration to Ministers and I have heard the Under-Secretary speak about it. Often, one local authority appears to be completely oblivious of the good practice in a neighbouring authority that is fantastic in some areas. By putting the information out there, we hope that local authorities will speak to one another more and question their own work and that of their neighbours, and so understand how they might improve their practice.
Mr Andrew Smith
If the underperforming authority does not improve, would the Minister go so far as to support the authority with good performance taking over the responsibilities of the underperforming authority?
Sarah Teather
Local authorities have been working with the Government to improve their performance, with more peer-led performance improvement across the piece, particularly in this area. We are encouraging much more peer mentoring and working together to challenge performance on the ground. I will ensure that the right hon. Gentleman’s suggestion is brought to the attention of the Under-Secretary when considering what action we might take.
Last week, we published an adopters’ charter, to ensure that anyone who really wants to adopt a child is welcomed with open arms and can receive all the help and support that they need. That picks up on what many hon. Members have said. We want adopters to feel valued and respected for offering a chance to transform a child’s life. Many of the issues raised earlier, such as age, smoking or obesity, are not written into statutory guidance or legislation. Some things build up on the ground, unfortunately, as an expected way in which people will be rejected, but those are not things that the Government are facing or that local authorities ought automatically to use to rule some people out as parents. The child’s needs must always be paramount. I hope that things such as the adopters’ charter will help to deal with all those issues that potential families might face, to ensure that they are given the necessary support.
The hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) asked whether we are doing any research on support for adopted—
Esther McVey
I have two specific questions, one about the loss of 28% of voluntary adoption agencies because of the 2009 Labour legislation, and what we as a Government will do to fill that huge gap. The other is about support in the education system for children who are adopted.
Sarah Teather
On the first point, as I only have one minute left, a number of the agencies that closed reopened under new structures and new names. I will ensure that I or my colleague write to the hon. Lady with more information. On schools, that is exactly why we have commissioned research through Bristol university to look at support for adoptive families. Another specific issue raised was ensuring that the school admissions code, for example, takes such matters into account. How children are considered throughout their school life is something that the Under-Secretary keeps very much in mind. We are considering how we can support young people who might be vulnerable, as the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich said, for the rest of their life but certainly during their school life.
I have only one minute left, unfortunately, and so many issues were raised—in fact, it is now 11 o’clock. I thank hon. Members for their many contributions.
Oral Answers to Questions
Sarah Teather Excerpts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
8. What progress he has made on extending support for children with special educational needs.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
We have finished consultation on our Green Paper, “Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability”. Twenty pathfinders, covering 31 local authority areas, are under way and will be testing proposals set out in the Green Paper. We will publish details of how we will respond to the consultation and take forward the development of special educational needs and disability provision by the end of the year.
Richard Graham
Some of the experiences of my constituents suggest that adopted children are especially vulnerable to developing special educational needs as a result of trauma. Would the Minister consider extending support to adoptive parents, especially information and advice, so that any latent special educational needs of adopted children can be identified as early as possible?
Sarah Teather
The critical issue is that children in care have particularly high levels of special educational needs. We need to get better at picking up those needs at an early stage and putting in place the right kind of care and support package for those children so that their needs are not latent and not picked up by the time the children are being put up for adoption. I announced in September which areas would begin the pathfinders. Some of those local authorities will be looking specifically at how they can improve that process of assessment for children in care. I hope that will make significant differences as we begin to learn the results of that for families who adopt a child.
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)
The Minister touched on the issue of children in care with special needs. Many children with special needs are those living in situations of domestic violence. The Minister’s colleague, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), recently sent a foreword to support Operation Encompass, which is based in Plymouth. Will the Minister agree to meet those involved, such as Police Sergeant Carney Howarth, and teachers to hear first hand how they are supporting vulnerable young people and how they quickly identify those whose education could be adversely affected by domestic violence, leading to special needs?
Sarah Teather
I am sure that I or my colleague, depending who is most appropriate, will be happy to meet people to discuss that matter.
Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)
I am pleased that the Minister seems to be aware that looked-after children are nine times more likely than their peers to have special educational needs, yet while the number of children in care is increasing, support for special educational needs is decreasing. A recent report from Action for Children suggests that the impact of Government cuts on children and families will mean even more children being at risk of neglect and taken into care. There is no time to waste. What action will the Minister take now to reverse these worrying trends?
Sarah Teather
I welcome the hon. Lady to the Front Bench and look forward to working with her on these issues. I know that she has taken a particular interest in looked-after children and children in care. We have made it clear to local authorities that the early intervention grant should be spent on early intervention. We know that it is difficult for local authorities at the moment, just as it is difficult for the Government. We are all having to make difficult decisions, but I think that local authorities are the right people to make those decisions. In areas that are beginning pathfinder work, we will be able to test exactly how we can ensure that we support children with special educational needs better in a range of settings.
Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
9. How many university technical colleges he expects to open in 2012.
Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)
10. What assessment he has made of reductions in the budgets for Sure Start children’s centres in the financial year (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
There was no reduction in revenue funding for Sure Start children’s centres in 2010-11. From April 2011, funding for children’s centres is included within the early intervention grant. It is for local authorities to decide how to use that funding, taking account of their statutory duties and local needs.
Mr Bailey
I thank the Minister for her reply. The changes to the funding streams for Sure Start amount to a slashing of expenditure of around 22% nationally and 25% in my local authority of Sandwell, and the removal of the ring-fencing condition gives local authorities the opportunity to plug their gaps in other services with Sure Start funding. Will the Minister undertake to conduct a full assessment and monitor the impact of those cuts on Sure Start centres in future?
Sarah Teather
The Government continue to monitor what is happening on the ground. We have made sure that enough money is available in the early intervention grant for a network of children’s centres. Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide sufficient children’s centres and to consult before opening, closing or significantly changing those services. We want to ensure that those are not just empty buildings and that they are providing high-quality services that are focused on outcomes that really matter, which is why I have recently announced the start of payment-by-results trials, which will focus much better on outcomes, and why we are consulting on a new core purpose, which will also focus on outcomes. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would agree that it is the outcomes that matter.
Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)
I support Sure Start centres, and I know that Her Majesty’s Government do and always have done. Will the Minister confirm that, despite the Opposition’s apocalyptic warnings, there are broadly the same number of Sure Start centres now as there were when the coalition came into power?
Sarah Teather
There is information available on directgov, and it links to what information we have about the children’s centres that are available in local authority areas. From speaking to local authorities, I certainly know, as I said in my answer just a few minutes ago, that on the whole good local authorities, which do have to make difficult decisions, are merging back-office functions and management functions to make sure that they can focus on outcomes—the point that I just made, and which I think every Member would want.
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
As the Minister does not have a clue about the actual impact on the ground of her decision to cut Sure Start funding—cutting it by more than a fifth and removing the ring fence—I decided to find out for myself, and I will let her know what I have found: 83% of councils are cutting their funding this year; 89% of councils are cutting it next year; they are being forced to lay off qualified teachers; and in some areas children’s centres are actually closing. Given those findings, is she prepared to rethink her decisions and act to ensure that families are given the support that they need in the foundation years?
Sarah Teather
I believe I read in the press that the hon. Lady said that 47 children’s centres would close, and it would be helpful if she sent me that information. I suspect that not all local authorities replied to her, in just the same way as not all local authorities replied to us. She could do much to chivvy her local authorities to reply, because we could then make absolutely sure that the information on directgov was completely accurate. I am not sure that I have an awful lot more to add to the point that I have already made clear: the money is available in the early intervention grant, and we are making it clear to local authorities that Sure Start children’s centres are a priority. Indeed, some of her colleagues complained that I had placed a moral ring fence—
Mr Speaker
Order. Can I just point out that we have a lot to get through? We must press on.
Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)
Ministers will have been horrified to see that the UK Border Agency is still routinely detaining children, and that it does not know where, for how long or how many there are. Will the Minister responsible for safeguarding call on her colleagues urgently to investigate this matter, not only to meet the coalition’s pledge but to ensure that the Government whom she represents are not actively putting children at risk?
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)
The hon. Lady will be aware that we have a commitment to abolish detention—[Hon. Members: “By last Christmas.”] We have already set up the panel, and that is now beginning. I am aware of the article that the hon. Lady mentioned, and the reports that have appeared in the press. This is a matter of concern to me as well.
Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)
In Calderdale, 15% of all schools have now converted to academy status, but that is unique in our region, particularly because of the disinformation that is being peddled on the subject. Will the Secretary of State consider increasing the amount of communication to schools on conversion to academy status to help to dispel many of the myths that are being peddled?